Author: Mike

OKC Thunder 131 — Milwaukee Bucks 123

Piece by piece we’re getting answers as to what kind of defensive team Oklahoma City is becoming as the calendar inches toward circa 2016. Unfortunately–the answer so far isn’t a pleasant one.

While Cleveland was beating Denver on the road by a 93-87 count, OKC’s Thunder allowed Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo to go off for a combined 63 points at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on a cold Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.

Put that in perspective if you might. Durant and Westbrook played well offensively, yet were outscored 63-53 by the Milwaukee Buck duo on this night. I think it would be incorrect to write Durant and Westbrook carried OKC to another win over a bad team to pad their record to 22-10.

Instead, I’m going to write Enes Kanter and rookie Cam Payne both turned in excellent performances off OKC’s bench to save the Thunder from what could have been a very bad loss as the Thunder had no answer to defend Khris Middleton. None.

Cam Payne took all of slumping DJ Augustin’s minutes in this game and made the most of his opportunity. In 16 minutes of play, Payne scored a career high to date 16 points and had three assists. Leading 92-88 heading into the fourth period—Donovan went with a lineup of Collison, Kanter, Payne, Waiters, and Morrow. I closed my eyes and prayed…. literally, but on this night this bench group not only held the lead, but expanded on it.

Enes Kanter was excellent as well scoring 23 points and grabbing 8 rebounds, but I’m going with Cam Payne as my No. 1 Star of the Game.

Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, and Morrow all scored in double figures.  Morrow scored ten points in sixteen minutes going 3-5 from beyond the arc hitting some big threes when it mattered.

Nick Collison was okay. Roberson and Adams didn’t do much for me. Steven Adams needs to pick it up. Not trying to be snarky to Kiwi Nation, but it was his third consecutive uninspiring performance in a row.

Dion Waiters had another bad night. Maybe playing the Lakers twice last week was too much. Maybe being in the midst of that Laker dumpster fire piece of shit team twice in the same week broke him again and regressed his game. I don’t know. But I know this—when he blindly threw the ball over his back in the first half which led to a Buck fast break basket…I would have benched him for the night. If Anthony Morrow takes some of his minutes moving forward–I’m okay with it. That singular play put me over the edge and almost caused me to throw a book at my sixty inch flat screen, and to be frank, while I enjoy writing these recaps–shattering my flat screen wasn’t part of the plan.

Didn’t even bother to listen to the Fox telecast post game show because I’m sure the narrative was Middleton and Antetokounmpo are now the second coming of Jordan and Pippen.

OKC improves to 22-10 with the win.

So…the glass half full/ half empty take in closing. Billy Donovan appears to have found him a ballplayer in one Cameron Payne from Murray State. But in the process has discovered Kyle Singler, DJ Augustin, and Dion Waiters might not be able to play important roles in this Thunder season.

Phoenix Suns in town on New Year’s Eve.

Mike Jackson

Milwaukee Bucks in Oklahoma City this evening to play the Thunder. This continues a very winnable string of games for OKC as the next five up are Milwaukee, Phoenix, @ Charlotte, Sacramento, and Memphis. It should be a stretch of games where OKC wins games and addresses their inconsistent defense and struggling bench lineups. Plus, it gives Billy Donovan the real option to decide if he’s serious about making the move from DJ Augustin to rookie Cam Payne at the backup point guard position or at least somehow integrating Payne into the regular rotation.

Milwaukee is not a good basketball team right now. The Bucks come in tonight at 12-20 and firmly in possession of the No. 13 seed in the East. Bucks are 3-14 on the road this season and 3-7 in their last ten games played. Add to the fact they’re on the second night of a road back to back after losing in Dallas 103-93.

Bucks  head coach Jason Kidd is out indefinitely after having hip surgery earlier this season. Assistant coach Joe Prunty is serving as the interim head coach.

Things just aren’t meshing in Milwaukee despite the optimism from last season with an interesting roster of promising young players. Greg Monroe was secured in the off season, plus Jabari Parker has returned from injury, but neither seem right or in mesh with one another within a fluid team flow. The Bucks have struggled with their interior defense and offensively they’re near the bottom of the NBA scoring at a 96.3 scoring clip per game.

Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Michael Carter-Williams, Jerryd Bayless, OJ Mayo, John Henson, Johnny O’Bryant, Mason Plumlee and Grevis Vasquez round out the rotation.

OKC comes off a sluggish ten point home win over Denver on Sunday night where they failed to cover the 16 point Vegas spread. The Thunder are firmly entrenched as the No. 3 seed in the West kind of in their own little vaccum behind both the Warriors and Spurs, yet safely holding the third seed from the rest of the field in the West.

Thunder are 14-4 at home this season, yet a surprising 6-8 versus Eastern Conference teams to date this season. Vegas has OKC listed as a 13.5 home favorite tonight.

Durant and Westbrook are both having exceptional offensive seasons. This week it’s Russell Westbrook winning Western Conference Player of the Week honors.

OKC’s ball movement was good last game with 27 assists with Westbrook and Durant accounting for 22 combined.

Adams and Ibaka should both have solid nights against this Bucks  interior defense.

The slate of games this week provides OKC with a chance to win games, have some practices, get better defensively, plus get some better play from the bench. If OKC just starts with energy and focus they should be 22-10 heading into the New Years’ Eve game.

OKC Thunder 122 — Denver Nuggets 112

With the state of Oklahoma in the grips of Winter Storm Goliath, OKC’s Thunder shook off another lethargic start to finally subdue the short-handed, out-talented, yet resilient Nuggets by a score of 122-112.

No Wilson Chandler. No Danilo Gallinari. No Emmanuel Mudiay. Yet, Denver played tough and actually led 61-53 at the half as they shot close to sixty-percent in the first half.

OKC’s defense wasn’t good, but give some credit to Denver’s lineups with Kenneth Faried, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Jameer Nelson, and Randy Foye which in essence took Steven Adams out of being a factor for the second straight game.

Faried was outstanding with a 25 point, 11 rebound night plus some great energy on the offensive glass in the first half. Will Barton and Joffrey Lauvergne added 19 and 18 points respectively.

OKC in no way addressed any of their defensive issues, but did show enough interest against a limited Nuggets team playing on the second night of a road back to back to get a win.

Denver led as late as the 8:13 mark in fourth period before OKC finally took control of the game with an 11-2 run which was fueled by Enes Kanter’s seven points and a resounding dunk by Dion Waiters.

Offensively–it was OKC’s best shooting night of the season as the Thunder shot 57.8 % from the field and 53.3 % from behind the arc.

Five Thunder players scored in double figures. Westbrook with 30, Durant with 26, Kanter with 21, Ibaka with 19, and Roberson with 10 points.

Steven Adams for the most part didn’t fit in this game because of the odd lineup combinations used by Mike Malone. Andre Roberson was decent with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in 27 minutes.

Russell Westbrook is my No. 1 Star of the Game with 30 points, 9 rebounds, and 12 assists.

As a team–OKC had 27 assists with 22 of them being credited to Westbrook and Durant. Ball movement wasn’t an issue in this game. The ball moved fairly well.

I thought Donovan did a god job of utilizing Waiters, rookie Cameron Payne, and Anthony Morrow. Each added something off the bench which helped OKC get the win.

Not sure if this is where Billy Donovan is going with the backup point guard minutes or if he just felt it was time to take a more serious look at Cam Payne. Either way, I thought Payne played well, but again it was at home against a bottom feeding team in the West who were without three of their more skilled players.

But still– a nice step forward for Cam Payne. I’d keep feeding him minutes at home against lesser teams and nurture his confidence. See what happens because unless these guys start playing defense they’re not winning anything anyway.

OKC improves to 21-9 and is in solid possession of the No. 3 seed in the West. Denver drops to 12-19 and hopefully drops to the No. 13 slot in the West per my bracket.

Milwaukee in Oklahoma City Tuesday, epic  Winter Storm Goliath headed northeast. Billy Donovan still searching for some defensive consistency from his star studded team.

Mike Jackson

 

 

 

Denver Nuggets in OKC tonight to play the Thunder. Not a game which elicits great emotion from this blogger. Oklahoma City is currently engulfed by Winter Storm Goliath with freezing rain, sleet,  and snow gripping the city. Add to the fact this is not a stellar Denver club under first year coach Mike Malone.

Denver enters tonight as a sixteen point road underdog and losers of four of their last five games. Add to the fact, Wilson Chandler was lost for the season due to hip surgery back in November and Danilo Gallinari is doubtful tonight. This is not an immensely talented team even with those two playing, let alone absent.

I have the Nuggets at No. 13 in the West on my preseason bracket sheet. At 12-18 and not really in possession of an offensive or defensive identity, a star player, or any real momentum in their rebuild under Malone. Nuggets are 7-9 on the road this season. Color me not overly positive on the prospects of this Denver club.

OKC comes into this game off of what I think is their second worst performance of the season — a nine point home loss to the Chicago Bulls who promptly lost to Dallas the next day. OKC’s 100-85 home loss to Boston still ranks as their worst overall performance in my season to date notebook.

Gradewise—I gave OKC a D for their performance on Christmas. Steven Adams was non-existent. Serge Ibaka was horrible. Andre Roberson  wasn’t solid. Dion Waiters was terrible. Morrow did hit some threes–which was encouraging. Kanter was borderline okay. DJ Augustin continued to struggle. Billy Donovan wasn’t what I would describe as innovative. But most disturbing to me was that Durant and Westbrook failed to lead by example on the defensive end of the floor kind of half-assing it for stretches of the game.

I love Durant and Westbrook, but if these two great offensive stars don’t start leading by example on the defensive end–the Thunder are going nowhere beyond the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs. I’m tired of bitching about it on here, but it is what it is. Defense wins championships. This is not rocket science stuff.

The youth male faction on Daily Thunder seem to think the insertion of rookie Cam Payne will solve all this, and you know what, as poorly as Augustin has played of late, maybe giving Payne some minutes tonight wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

OKC blew out Denver at home earlier this season and tonight should be the same if Durant and Westbrook come ready to play along with the three other starters.

Denver should have a rotation of Will Barton, Kenneth Faried, Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Jameer Nelson, Randy Foye, Darrell Arthur, JJ Hickson, Jefferey Lauvergne, Kosta P, and Mike Miller.

Fifty-two games left in this regular season. Billy Donovan should clearly see what he has to do make this team better and at the least a reasonable threat to get to the Western Conference Finals. If not—then I don’t understand the buyout of Scott Brooks’ last season of his contract by the Thunder.

Pre game talking points in the Thunder locker room. Play harder, play smarter, play like you care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we’re now past Christmas Day–I’m going to start ranking the top twelve teams in the NBA every Saturday. This won’t be like Stein over at ESPN ranking all thirty teams–which by the way is overkill and stupid since there’s usually only six teams a year or so with any chance whatsoever to win an NBA title.

Basketball is not Watson and Crick restructuring the double helix DNA molecule as some might want you to think. It’s really not all that complicated even with the nerds devising multiple formulas and endless takes on +/-. It’s still a simple game.

OKCThunderGround Power Poll per 12/26/15

1    Golden State Warriors

2    Cleveland Cavaliers

3    San Antonio Spurs

4    Oklahoma City Thunder

5    Atlanta Hawks

6    Miami Heat

7    Houston Rockets

8    Toronto Raptors

9    LA Clippers

10  Chicago Bulls

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11 Dallas Mavs

12 Memphis Grizzlies

 

 

 

 

Unlike Tim Duncan, I actually like Christmas Day NBA basketball. I think it gives players and fans alike an opportunity to make some mid-term observations about each conference and the league as a whole with fifty or so games remaining in the regular season.

These would be some of my observations after yesterday.

Golden State and Cleveland should both return to the NBA Finals because they each have an MVP in Steph and LeBron, each play solid team defense, and each have deep supporting casts. Sidenote observation: does coaching really even matter in the NBA with Luke Walton coaching the Warriors to a 28-1 start and David Blatt coaching the Cavs to an NBA Finals appearance last season?

I love Steph Curry, absolutely love Steph Curry, but Draymond Green is my favorite Warrior player and in my mind the Underground league MVP. Draymond Green gets it. He understands the game. Understands what it takes in teambuilding. If you traded Draymond Green for Serge Ibaka — the OKC Thunder would be a serious NBA title contender.

Cranky Tim Duncan says he doesn’t care for NBA Christmas basketball, and since he’s won five NBA championship rings– I’m okay with that. Spurs should be the second best team in the West because they have a nice roster and maybe the one coach in the league who makes a visable difference to his team night in and night out.

Don’t discount the quirky-goofy Houston Rockets just yet as a top four team in the West. I have them at No. 4 in my Daily Thunder Western Conference bracket and actually feel pretty good about the Rockets since the return of Terrence Jones. They should deal Ty Lawson, but otherwise, I’d keep an eye on the Rockets.

My Oklahoma City Thunder…what to think? Here’s what I think–I consider the Thunder an extremely entertaining team to watch with Durant and Westbrook, but I don’t view OKC as a serious title contender because for one thing Kevin Durant is 4-16 lifetime against a guy named Lebron James. Secondly—there’s no way I could see OKC winning four games against the Golden State Warriors in a two week span because Oklahoma City refuses to buy into the proven axiom defense wins championships, plus OKC has a penchant for making dumb plays at just the wrong time.

Moral of the story in Oklahoma City—teams which don’t play defense every night and don’t play smart don’t win championships.

Otherwise–as a fan of the NBA in general beyond OKC, I would be very excited about seeing either a Golden State-Cleveland or San Antonio-Cleveland NBA Finals.

Mike Jackson